CN115696393A

CN115696393A - Mechanism for configuring equipment and communication equipment

Info

Publication number: CN115696393A
Application number: CN202210006666.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 汪巍崴; 王弘; 许丽香
Original assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-22
Filing date: 2022-01-05
Publication date: 2023-02-03

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a mechanism for configuring a device and a communication device, and particularly provides a method related to paging, which includes: acquiring paging configuration auxiliary information; transmitting a message including information related to a paging signal based on the paging configuration assistance information.

Description

Mechanism for configuring equipment and communication equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for configuring a device.

Background

In order to meet the increasing demand for wireless data communication services since the deployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made to develop improved 5G or quasi-5G communication systems. Accordingly, the 5G or quasi-5G communication system is also referred to as a "super 4G network" or a "post-LTE system".

Wireless communication is one of the most successful innovations in modern history. Recently, the number of subscribers to wireless communication services has exceeded 50 billion and is continuing to grow rapidly. Due to the increasing popularity of smart phones and other mobile data devices (e.g., tablet computers, notebook computers, netbooks, e-book readers, and machine type devices) among consumers and businesses, the demand for wireless data services is growing rapidly. To meet the high-speed growth of mobile data services and support new applications and deployments, it is important to improve radio interface efficiency and coverage.

Disclosure of Invention

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method related to paging, including: acquiring paging configuration auxiliary information; transmitting a message including information related to a paging signal based on the paging configuration assistance information.

In one implementation, the paging configuration assistance information includes information indicating the number of subgroups and/or at least one of the following information for each of one or more groups of users:

identification information of the subgroup;

user paging probability related information;

user type related information;

information related to the mobile characteristics of the user;

energy characteristic related information of the user; and

an indication of the user's capabilities.

In one implementation, wherein the number of subgroups is one of:

the number of subgroups used in paging for packet methods based on the core network, or

The number of subgroups used for paging to support a subscriber identity based grouping method,

wherein the indication information of the number of subgroups further includes identification information of a cell or an area to which the number of subgroups is directed, and the area includes one of: registration area, tracking area, RAN notification area, area covered by a cell, and coverage area of a base station.

In one implementation, wherein the information related to paging signals includes information of one or more sets of paging signals, and wherein the information related to paging signals includes, for each of the one or more sets of paging signals, at least one of:

the frequency location of the paging signal;

the time location of the paging signal;

the length of time occupied by the paging signal;

number information of paging opportunities corresponding to the paging signal;

energy offset information;

a sequence of paging signals;

resource mapping mode information;

information of a paging signal group corresponding to a resource of a paging signal;

the number of paging signal groups corresponding to the subscriber group; and

the characteristic information of the user group is,

wherein the characteristic information of the user group comprises at least one of:

identification information of the subgroup;

information related to paging probability;

information about the user type;

information about the movement characteristics;

indication of user capabilities; and

information about the energy characteristics.

In one implementation, the obtaining the paging configuration assistance information includes: receiving, by the second node from the first node via a paging configuration message, paging configuration assistance information at the first node; or receiving, by the second node from the first node via a paging configuration message, paging configuration assistance information sent by the third node to the first node; or the second node acquires the paging configuration assistance information at the second node itself.

In one implementation, the paging configuration message is one of the following: f1A SETUP RESPONSE message, or a GNB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE ACCOWLEDGE message, or a GNB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a message of other F1 interface, or a W1SETUP RESPONSE message, or an NG-ENB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE ACCOWLEDGE message, or an NG-ENB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a message of other W1 interface, or a newly defined message.

In one implementation, among other things, a message including information related to a paging signal is communicated via one of: a system message, an RRC message, or a newly defined message.

In one implementation, the method further comprises: transmitting, by the second node, the paging configuration assistance information to the first node.

There is provided a method related to paging according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, including: receiving, by a second node, a first paging message including paging transmission assistance information from a first node; and transmitting, by the second node, a paging signal and/or a second paging message to the fourth node based on the first paging message.

In one implementation, the paging transmission assistance information includes at least one of: identification information of the subgroup, first paging assistance information, and information related to the cell.

In one implementation, the first paging assistance information includes at least one of: first user capability information, paging probability related information of a user, user type related information, user movement characteristic related information, user capability indication information, and user energy characteristic related information, wherein the cell related information includes information of one or more cells, and for each of the one or more cells, the cell related information includes at least one of: identification information of a cell, second paging assistance information, indication information of a recently visited cell, and identification information of a recently visited cell, wherein the first user capability information indicates a method of paging packets supported by a user, including one or more of paging based on a grouping method of a core network and paging based on a grouping method of a user identity, wherein the second paging assistance information includes at least one of: identification information of subgroups, information related to paging probability, information related to user type, information related to movement characteristics of users, information related to indication of user capability, and information related to energy characteristics of users.

In one implementation, a first cell in the cell-related information is a most recently visited cell; or when the cell-related information indicates a plurality of cells, the cell including the second paging assistance information is a most recently visited cell.

In one implementation, the paging transmission assistance information is communicated via one of: PAGING message of F1 interface, or message of other F1 interface, or PAGING message of W1 interface, or message of other W1 interface, or newly defined message.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method related to user access, including: receiving, by the second node, access configuration information related to the user type from the first node; and sending, by the second node, the access configuration information to a fourth node.

In one implementation, the access configuration information includes at least one of:

identification information of a cell;

identification information of a PLMN supported by a cell;

user type information allowing access to the cell;

user type information not allowed to access the cell;

indication information of cell access;

indication information of single antenna user access;

indication information of dual antenna user access.

In one implementation, the access configuration information is communicated via one of the following messages: f1A SETUP RESPONSE message, or a GNB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE ACKNOWLEDGE message, or a GNB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a message of other F1 interfaces, or a W1SETUP RESPONSE message, or an NG-ENB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE ACKNOWLEDGE message, or an NG-ENB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a newly defined message.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method related to user access, including: determining, by the second node, a user type based on an access signal received from the fourth node; sending, by the second node, the indication of the user type to the first node; and receiving, by the second node, access configuration information based on the indication information of the user type from the first node.

In one implementation, the user type indication information is sent to the first node via an INITIAL UL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER message or other message, and the access configuration information is sent to the second node via a DL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER message or other message.

There is provided a method relating to paging according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, including: acquiring paging configuration auxiliary information by a first node; and transmitting, by the first node, the paging configuration assistance information to the second node or the third node, or transmitting, by the second node, a message including information related to a paging signal to the fourth node based on the paging configuration assistance information.

In one implementation, the first node obtains the paging configuration assistance information by at least one of:

receiving, by the first node, paging configuration assistance information from the third node;

acquiring paging configuration assistance information from a first node by the first node; or

Receiving, by the first node, paging configuration assistance information from the second node.

There is provided a method related to paging according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, including: transmitting, by a first node, a first paging message comprising paging transmission assistance information to a second node, wherein the paging transmission assistance information comprises at least one of: identification information of the subgroup, first paging assistance information, and information related to the cell.

An embodiment according to the present disclosure provides a method related to user access, including: receiving, by the first node, information indicative of the user type from the second node; and sending, by the first node, access configuration information based on the indication information of the user type to the second node.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method related to user access, including: transmitting, by a first node, access configuration information relating to a user type to a second node, wherein the access configuration information comprises at least one of:

identification information of a cell;

identification information of a PLMN supported by a cell;

user type information allowing access to the cell;

user type information not allowed to access the cell;

indication information of cell access;

indication information of single antenna user access;

indication information of dual antenna user access.

There is provided a method related to paging according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, including: transmitting, by the third node, paging configuration assistance information to the first node, or receiving, by the third node, paging configuration assistance information from the first node, the method further comprising: determining, by the third node, information related to transmission of a paging signal and/or a paging message of the user based on the paging configuration assistance information.

There is provided, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method performed by a sixth node in a wireless communication system, the method including: transmitting, by the sixth node, eighth assistance information related to paging of the fourth node to the third node, wherein the eighth assistance information comprises at least one of: the first identification information of the fourth node is used for indicating the identification information of the fourth node on an interface between the third node and the sixth node, the identification information of the associated node is used for indicating a relay terminal connected with the fourth node, and the first recommendation information comprises the identification information of one or more recommended associated nodes.

An embodiment in accordance with the present disclosure provides a method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, wherein the first node communicates with a fourth node via an associated node, the method comprising: receiving, by the first node, first reporting information relating to the fourth node from the associated node; and transmitting, by the first node, the ninth assistance information to the sixth node based on the first reporting information.

In one implementation, the first reporting information includes at least one of:

second identity information of the fourth node, comprising a 5G-S temporary Mobile subscriber identity 5G-S-TMSI or an inactive radio network temporary identifier I-RNTI,

identification information of the paging sub-group indicating a paging sub-group to which the fourth node belongs,

indication information of a method of determining a paging sub-group for indicating one of the following methods: determining a configuration to receive the paging message based on the configured paging subgroup identification, determining a configuration to receive the paging message based on the identification information of the fourth node,

the indication information of the paging method supported by the user is used for indicating one of the following methods: determining a configuration for receiving a paging message based on the configured paging subgroup identification, determining a configuration for receiving a paging message based on the identification information of the fourth node, an

Wherein the ninth auxiliary information includes at least one of:

second identification information of the fourth node,

and the identification information of the associated node indicates the relay terminal connected with the fourth node.

There is provided, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a communication apparatus including: a transceiver configured to transmit and/or receive a signal; a memory configured to store data; and a processor configured to perform control to perform any of the methods according to the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In one implementation, the communication device is a first node, a second node, a third node, or a fourth node as described below.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is an exemplary system architecture for System Architecture Evolution (SAE);

fig. 2 is an exemplary system architecture according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is an example of a base station structure according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is an example of a configuration flow according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is an example of a configuration flow according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is an example of a configuration flow according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is an example of a configuration flow according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 shows a simplified block diagram of an example configuration of hardware components of a communication device, in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to facilitate a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and equivalents thereof. This description includes various specific details to facilitate understanding but should be considered exemplary only. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Moreover, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and phrases used in the following specification and claims are not limited to their dictionary meanings but are used only by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following descriptions of the various embodiments of the present disclosure are provided for illustration only and not for the purpose of limiting the disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

It should be understood that the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a component surface" includes reference to one or more of such surfaces. "/" denotes "and/or", e.g., "first/second node" denotes a first node and a second node, or a first node or a second node.

The terms "comprises" or "comprising" refer to the presence of the respective disclosed functions, operations, or components that may be used in various embodiments of the present disclosure, and do not limit the presence of one or more additional functions, operations, or features. Furthermore, the terms "comprises" or "comprising" may be interpreted as referring to certain features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or groups thereof, but should not be interpreted as excluding the possibility of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, or groups thereof.

The term "or" as used in various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any and all combinations of any of the listed terms. For example, "a or B" may include a, may include B, or may include both a and B.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical or scientific terms) used in this disclosure have the same meaning as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. General terms, as defined in dictionaries, are to be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their context in the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

In an NR (new radio) system, a User Equipment (UE) needs to communicate with a network (e.g., a base station) to different degrees when in different states. This mechanism is intended to ensure that the user can transmit data in time when the service arrives, and to save the energy consumption of the user when the user service is not frequent. In addition, NR systems also need to allow different types of users to access the network, and therefore NR defines users with different capabilities and provides network-side configurations for these users with different capabilities that match their capabilities.

Figures 1 through 8, discussed below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged system or device.

Fig. 1 is an exemplary system architecture 100 for System Architecture Evolution (SAE). A User Equipment (UE) 101 is a terminal device for receiving data. An evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) 102 is a radio access network that includes macro base stations (eNodeB/NodeB) that provide access to a radio network interface for UEs. Mobility Management Entity (MME) 103 is responsible for managing mobility context, session context, and security information for the UE. Serving Gateway (SGW) 104 mainly provides the functions of the user plane, and MME 103 and SGW 104 may be in the same physical entity. A packet data network gateway (PGW) 105 is responsible for charging, lawful interception, etc., and may also be in the same physical entity as the SGW 104. A Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 106 provides quality of service (QoS) policy and charging criteria. The general packet radio service support node (SGSN) 108 is a network node device in the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) that provides routing for the transmission of data. The Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 109 is the home subsystem of the UE and is responsible for protecting user information including the current location of the user equipment, the address of the serving node, user security information, the packet data context of the user equipment, etc.

Fig. 2 is an exemplary system architecture 200 in accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure. Other embodiments of the system architecture 200 can be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

A User Equipment (UE) 201 is a terminal device for receiving data. The next generation radio access network (NG-RAN) 202 is a radio access network comprising base stations (gbb or eNB connected to the 5G core network 5GC, also called NG-gbb) providing access to radio network interfaces for UEs. An access control and mobility management function (AMF) 203 is responsible for managing the mobility context of the UE, and security information. A user plane functional entity (UPF) 204 mainly provides the functions of the user plane. The session management function entity SMF205 is responsible for session management. The Data Network (DN) 206 contains services such as the operator, access to the internet, and third party services.

In the NR system, in order to support network function virtualization and achieve more efficient resource management and scheduling, a base station (gNB/ng-eNB) providing a radio network interface for a terminal (UE) may be further divided into a centralized unit gNB-CU/ng-eNB-CU (gNB central unit/ng-eNB central unit) and a distributed unit gNB-DU/ng-eNB-DU (gNB distributed unit/ng-eNB distributed unit) (abbreviated as CU and DU in the present invention), as shown in fig. 3 (a). The gNB-CU has Radio Resource Control (RRC), service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) Protocol layers, etc., and the ng-eNB-CU has RRC and PDCP layers. The gNB-DU/ng-eNB-DU has a radio link control protocol (RLC), medium Access Control (MAC), and physical layer, etc. The gNB-CU and the gNB-DU are standardized public interfaces F1, and the ng-eNB-CU and the ng-eNB-DU are standardized public interfaces W1. The F1 interface is divided into a control plane F1-C and a user plane F1-U. The transport network layer of F1-C is based on IP transport. To more reliably transport signaling, the SCTP protocol has been added over IP. The protocol of the application layer is F1AP. SCTP can provide reliable application layer message transport. The transport layer of the F1-U is UDP/IP, and the GTP-U is used for carrying user plane protocol data units PDU above UDP/IP. Further, for the gNB-CU, as shown in FIG. 3 (b), the gNB-CU can include a gNB-CU-CP (control plane part of the base station's central unit) that includes the functionality of the base station's control plane, having RRC and PDCP protocol layers, and a gNB-CU-UP that includes the functionality of the base station's user plane, having SDAP and PDCP protocol layers. The gNB-CU-CP and the gNB-CU-UP are standardized public interfaces E1, and the protocol is E1AP. The interface between the control plane part of the concentration unit of the base station and the distribution unit of the base station is an F1-C interface, i.e. a control plane interface of F1, and the interface between the user plane part of the concentration unit of the base station and the distribution unit of the base station is an F1-U interface, i.e. a user plane interface of F1. In addition, in the NR system, a base station providing an E-UTRA user plane and a control plane accessing a 5G core network is referred to as ng-eNB, and in order to support virtualization, such base station (ng-eNB) may be further divided into a centralized unit ng-eNB-CU (gNB centralized unit/ng-eNB centralized unit) and a distributed unit ng-eNB-DU (gNB distributed unit/ng-eNB distributed unit) (abbreviated as CU and DU in the present invention), as shown in fig. 3 (c). The ng-eNB-CU has an RRC layer and a PDCP layer. The gNB-DU/ng-eNB-DU has a radio link control protocol (RLC), medium Access Control (MAC), and physical layer, etc. Between ng-eNB-CU and ng-eNB-DU is a standardized public interface W1. The W1 interface is divided into a control plane W1-C and a user plane W1-U. The transport network layer of W1-C is based on IP transport. For more reliable transport signaling, the SCTP protocol is added on top of IP. The protocol of the application layer is W1AP. The transport layer of W1-U is UDP/IP, and GTP-U is used to carry user plane protocol data units PDU over UDP/IP.

The complexity of 5G systems poses challenges to the power consumption and complexity of the user terminals. On one hand, the design of the 5G system needs to minimize the energy consumption of users, and on the other hand, the 5G system needs to allow access of different types of users in consideration of the diversity of terminals. For this reason, 3GPP started research on user equipments (RedCap UEs: reduced Capability UEs) for user energy saving and Reduced Capability. User power saving relates to energy consumption of a user in different states (e.g., idle state, connected state, deactivated state, etc.). For the idle state or the deactivated state, the user is already in the low power consumption stage, but there still exists much unnecessary energy consumption, for example, the user needs to receive the paging signal before the pager receives the paging signal, and the user may not receive the paging message in the process, which results in excessive and unnecessary energy consumption. For the user equipment with reduced capability, the equipment capability is lower than that of the common 5G terminal, so the complexity is lower and the energy consumption requirement is higher. When such devices access the system, how to make such devices work well in the 5G network is also an urgent problem to be solved.

In addition, in order to extend the coverage of the base station, 5G proposes a Sidelink relay (Sidelink relay) technology, that is, one user terminal can access the network through another terminal (relay UE). In this technique, to page a user terminal, the base station may send a paging message to the relay terminal, which then forwards the paging message to the user terminal. In this process, on one hand, the relay terminal consumes too much energy, and on the other hand, the existing mechanism may cause too much sending of the paging message because the user terminal is already connected to one relay terminal. Therefore, how to reduce the energy consumption of the relay terminal and the transmission of unnecessary paging messages are also a problem to be solved for the sidelink relay technology.

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below in conjunction with the appended drawings.

The text and drawings are provided as examples only to aid in understanding the present disclosure. They should not be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure in any way. While certain embodiments and examples have been provided, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art, based on the disclosure herein, that changes can be made in the embodiments and examples shown without departing from the scope of the disclosure.

Before introducing the details, some assumptions and some definitions of the invention are given below.

■ The message names in the present invention are only examples, and other message names may be used.

■ The "first", "second", and the like included in the message names of the present invention are just examples of messages, and do not represent the order of execution.

■ Detailed descriptions of steps not related to the present invention are omitted in the present invention.

■ In the present invention, the steps in each flow may be executed in combination with each other or may be executed individually. The execution of the steps of each flow is only exemplary and does not exclude other possible execution orders, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

■ In the present invention, the base station may be a 5G base station (e.g., gNB, ng-eNB), a 4G base station (e.g., eNB), or other types of access nodes.

■ In the present invention, transmission of data refers to reception or transmission of data.

■ In the present invention, the expressions "user" and "user equipment" are used interchangeably and refer to access equipment such as user terminals in a communication system.

The node related by the invention:

■ A first node: e.g. a base station, or a central unit of a base station, or a control plane part of a central unit of a base station, e.g. a gNB, a gNB-CU-CP, a ng-eNB-CU-CP

■ The second node: for example, a distribution unit of a base station, e.g. a gNB-DU, or ng-eNB-DU

■ A third node: for example, a control unit of a core network, such as an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), mobility Management Entity (MME), etc

■ A fourth node: e.g. a user terminal, e.g. a User Equipment (UE), or a user

■ And a fifth node: for example, a relay terminal, which performs data transmission with the fourth node through a sidelink, and the fourth node may perform data transmission with the first or second node through a fifth node

■ A sixth node: for example, a base station, or a concentration unit of base stations, or a control plane part of a concentration unit of base stations, to which the sixth node belongs, is different from the base station to which the first and/or second node belongs. In one embodiment, the base station to which the first and/or second node belongs is a base station to which the fourth node is connected (the fourth node initiates a connection restart response procedure to the base station through the fifth node, such as a serving base station), and the sixth node is a base station (such as a last serving base station) to which the fourth node is connected before entering a connection deactivation state (RRC inactive)

The invention provides two paging methods:

■ Paging (paging over core network based sub-group) based on a core network grouping method divides users into different paging groups, and the different paging groups have different configurations when receiving paging signals. In the method, a core network device (such as AMF) determines a grouping method of users, a group where the users are located, and the total number of the groups

■ Paging based on grouping method of user identification (paging via UE ID based subgroup)

In the method, a base station sends the total number of the groups to a user, the user determines the groups in which the user is located according to identification information (such as UE ID,5G-S-TMSI (temporal Mobile Subscriber Identity), I-RNTI (inactive-radio network Temporary identifier) and the like), and the groups of the user are obtained by performing modulo operation on the identification information according to the total number of the groups.

The present invention may involve the following process:

in a first aspect: configuration of paging signals and/or paging information

When the user is in an idle state or an inactive state, the user is in a low power consumption stage. The network side can inform the user of data transmission by sending a paging message. In this process, in order to receive the paging message, the user needs to receive the paging message in the configured time slot, and the user needs to wake up (wake up from the low power consumption stage) before the configured time slot, so as to ensure that the user can synchronize with the network side and can ensure the correct reception of the paging message. However, the user does not necessarily receive the paging message for the user in the configured time slot, because the network side configures a plurality of users to receive the paging message in the same time slot. If the user does not receive a paging message for the user in the configured slot, the user may unnecessarily consume energy in this process (i.e., the user wakes up but does not receive a paging message in the configured slot). In order to solve the technical problem, the invention provides a configuration process, which is used for configuring the sending of the paging signal and/or the paging message to help the user to determine whether the paging message needs to be received in the configured time slot, and then the user only needs to receive the paging message in the time slot with the paging message, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the user. The nodes involved in this process include the first/second/third/fourth nodes, and there may be several methods as shown in fig. 4:

the method comprises the following steps: auxiliary information required for configuring transmission of paging signals and/or paging messages is provided by a core network

In the method, the flow of signaling interaction comprises the following steps:

step 1 a-1. A third node sends a first configuration message to a first node, wherein the first configuration message comprises paging configuration information, the paging configuration message is used for providing auxiliary information required for configuring a paging signal and/or sending a paging message for the first node, and the paging configuration information included in the first configuration message comprises at least one of the following information:

■ And information indicating the number of subgroups, which is used to notify the first node of information on the number of subgroups, and in one embodiment, the number of subgroups is set by the third node, and the number of subgroups is used when paging is performed by a core network-based grouping method, and further, may be applicable to all cells in the registration area. In one embodiment, the sub-group is a paging sub-group, and the first node may generate configuration information for each paging sub-group according to the number information indicated by the indication information of the number of the sub-groups; in one embodiment, the number of subgroups indicated by the indication information may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the numbers of subgroups supported by all cells within the one or more regions (for example, in a case where the numbers of subgroups supported by respective cells among all cells within the one or more regions are not necessarily the same as each other, the number of subgroups indicated by the indication information is a maximum or minimum value among a plurality of different numbers of subgroups supported by the respective cells); further, the indication information may further include identification information of one or more areas corresponding to the number of subgroups, and the one or more areas may be at least one of the following types: a registration area, a tracking area, a RAN notification area, an area covered by a cell, and a coverage area of a base station; in one embodiment, if the information indicating the number of subgroups includes identification information of one or more areas, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by all cells within the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more areas. Specifically, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more registration areas, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by cells in an area indicated by the identification information of the one or more registration areas; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a subgroup number and identification information of one or more tracking areas (tracking areas), the subgroup number may be a minimum (or maximum) value of the subgroup numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more tracking areas (tracking areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a sub-group number and identification information of one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas), the sub-group number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the sub-group numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a subgroup number and identification information of one or more cells, the subgroup number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell indicated by the identification information of the one or more cells; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more base stations, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell of the base station indicated by the identification information of the one or more base stations.

■ First assistance information, whose role is to assist the first node in generating configuration information related to paging signals and/or paging messages. The first auxiliary information may be respectively given for a plurality of groups of users, and for a group of users, the first auxiliary information includes at least one of the following information:

first identification information of subgroups, the information identifying a subgroup, which in an embodiment is a paging subgroup

First information of paging probability, which serves to indicate probability that the user is paged, may be, in one embodiment, a paging probability for a sub-group identified by the above-described "first identification information of the sub-group", that is, a paging probability of the user in the sub-group

First information of user types, e.g. reduced capability users (Redcap user), eMBB users, eMTC users, URLLC users, multi SIM card users, etc. In one embodiment, the user type may be a subgroup identified for the above-mentioned "first identification information of subgroup", i.e. a type of users in the subgroup

First information of a moving feature, which functions to indicate moving characteristics of the user, such as a stationary user, a moving user, a fast moving user, a medium moving user, a low moving user, a Nomadic user. Further, the information may also include information of the user's movement speed. In one embodiment, the movement characteristic information may be a sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "first identification information of the sub-group", that is, a movement characteristic of a user in the sub-group

First information of an energy feature indicating a manner of energy supply of the user, such as plug-in (plug-in), battery powered, which may also be referred to as Power Profile. In one embodiment, the energy characteristic information may be the energy characteristic of the sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "first identification information of the sub-group", i.e. the users in the sub-group

Information indicating user capability, which is used to indicate a paging method supported by the user (e.g., paging based on a core network grouping method or paging based on a user identification grouping method), based on which the second node can be helped to determine the configuration of the paging user (e.g., whether to send a paging message to the user based on subgroup identification information included in the paging message, if the user supports paging based on the core network grouping method, a paging signal can be sent to the user based on the subgroup identification information, otherwise, it is impossible, e.g., whether to support paging based on the user identification grouping method, if so, a subgroup identification is obtained based on the user identification, and then a paging signal is sent on a resource corresponding to the subgroup identification)

If the first node is a centralized unit of the base station or a control plane part of the centralized unit of the base station, the above procedure may further include:

step 1a-2a: the first node sends a second configuration message to the second node, wherein the second configuration message comprises paging configuration auxiliary information, the function of the second configuration message is to provide the second node with information related to configuring a paging signal and/or a paging message, and the paging configuration auxiliary information included in the message comprises at least one of the following information:

■ And information indicating the number of subgroups, which is used to notify the second node of the information on the number of subgroups, which is a paging subgroup in one embodiment, and the second node may generate configuration information for each paging subgroup according to the information on the number. In one embodiment, the number of subgroups is the number of subgroups set by the third node, and the number of subgroups is the number of subgroups used when paging is performed by a grouping method based on a core network, and further, may be applicable to all cells in the registration area. Further, after receiving the indication information of the number of subgroups, the second node may generate the number of subgroups for paging based on the grouping method of the ue (for example, the number of subgroups used for paging based on the grouping method of the ue is not less than or not greater than the number of subgroups used for paging based on the grouping method of the core network); in one embodiment, the number of sub-groups indicated by the indication information may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of sub-groups supported by all cells in one or more areas; further, the indication information may further include identification information of one or more areas corresponding to the sub-group number, and the one or more areas may be at least one of the following types: a registration area, a tracking area, a RAN notification area, an area covered by a cell, and a coverage area of a base station; in one embodiment, if the identification information of one or more areas is included, the sub-group number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the sub-group numbers supported by all cells within the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more areas. Specifically, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more registration areas, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by cells in an area indicated by the identification information of the one or more registration areas; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a subgroup number and identification information of one or more tracking areas (tracking areas), the subgroup number may be a minimum (or maximum) value of the subgroup numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more tracking areas (tracking areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a sub-group number and identification information of one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas), the sub-group number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the sub-group numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and identification information of one or more cells, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell indicated by the identification information of the one or more cells; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and identification information of one or more base stations, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell of the base station indicated by the identification information of the one or more base stations.

■ Second assistance information, whose role is to assist the second node in generating configuration information related to the paging signal and/or the paging message. The auxiliary information may be respectively given for a plurality of groups of users, and the second auxiliary information includes at least one of the following information for a group of users:

second identification information of subgroups, the information identifying a subgroup, which in an embodiment is a paging subgroup

Second information of paging probability, the role of which is to indicate the probability that the user is paged, in one embodiment, the paging probability may be for the subgroup identified by the above-mentioned "second identification information of the subgroup", i.e., the paging probability of the user in the subgroup

Second information of the user type, for example, reduced capability users (RedCap user: reduced capability user), eMBB users, eMTC users, URLLC users, multi-SIM card users, and the like. In one embodiment, the type of the user may be a subgroup identified for the above-mentioned "second identification information of subgroup", i.e. the type of the user in the subgroup

Second information of moving features, which functions as movement characteristics indicating users, such as stationary users, moving users, fast moving users, medium moving users, low moving users, nomadic users. Further, the information may also include information of the user's movement speed. In one embodiment, the movement characteristic information may be a sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "second identification information of the sub-group", that is, a movement characteristic of a user in the sub-group

Second information of the energy characteristics, which indicates the way the user is supplied with energy, such as plug-in (plug-in), battery powered, which information may also be referred to as Power Profile. In one embodiment, the second information of the energy characteristic may be a subgroup identified for the above-mentioned "second identification information of subgroup", i.e. the energy characteristics of the users in the subgroup

Step 1a-2, the first node or the second node sends a first user configuration message to the fourth node, wherein the first user configuration message comprises user configuration information. In one embodiment, if the first node is a base station, the step is performed after step 1a-1 above, and the first node sends a first user configuration message to the fourth node, where the user configuration information in the configuration message is generated according to the information (e.g., paging configuration auxiliary information) received in step 1a-1 (e.g., the number of configurations of the paging signal and/or the paging message is determined according to the indication information of the number of subgroups, the interval/cycle of the time slot for sending the paging signal and/or the paging message is determined according to the first auxiliary information, etc.); in another embodiment, if the first node is a central unit of a base station or a control plane part of a central unit of a base station, this step is performed after step 1a-2a above, and the second node sends a first user configuration message to the fourth node, the user configuration information in the configuration message being generated according to the information received in step 1a-2a (e.g. paging configuration assistance information). The user configuration information included in the first user configuration message may be used to configure the transmission of paging signals and/or paging information. The user configuration information included in the first user configuration message includes at least one of the following information:

■ First information about a Paging signal, which is information about a Paging signal, wherein the Paging signal may be a wakeup signal (WUS), a Group wakeup signal (GWUS), and a Paging Early Indication (PEI). Further, the paging signal may have one or more paging signals, and when there are multiple paging signals, the multiple paging signals may be divided into different groups, each group of paging signals has a corresponding resource, and for each group of paging signals, the first information related to the paging signal includes at least one of the following information:

frequency position of paging signal, the information indicating frequency position of transmitting paging signal

Time position of the paging signal, the information indicating the time position at which the paging signal is transmitted,

a length of time taken for a paging signal, the information indicating the length of time taken for the paging signal, e.g., maximum WUS/GWUS/PEI duration

Information of the number of Paging Opportunities (POs) corresponding to the paging signal, which indicates the number of paging opportunities mapped to one paging signal

Energy offset information, e.g., power offset, indicating the offset of the energy used by the paging signal relative to other physical signals (e.g., CRS, CSI-RS, SSB, etc.)

A sequence of paging signals, the information indicating a sequence for generating the paging signals

Resource mapping pattern information indicating time/frequency information mapped to paging signal resources

Information of paging signal groups corresponding to resources of paging signals, the information indicating the paging signal groups corresponding to each paging signal resource

A number of paging signal groups corresponding to the user group, the information indicating the number of paging signal groups corresponding to a group of users, and a characteristic corresponding to the group of users may be indicated by information included in the "first assistance information" or the "second assistance information" described above

Characteristic information of a user group, the information indicating characteristics of a group of users corresponding to the paging signal, the characteristics being describable by at least one of:

● Identification information of subgroups identifying a subgroup, which in one embodiment is a paging subgroup

● Information of paging probability, which is used to indicate the probability that the user is paged, in one embodiment, the paging probability may be for the subgroup identified by the above "identification information of subgroup", i.e. the paging probability of the user in the subgroup

● User type information, such as reduced capability users (RedCap users), eMBB users, eMTC users, URLLC users, multi-SIM card users, and the like. In one embodiment, the user type may be a subgroup identified for the above-mentioned "identification information of subgroup", i.e. a type of users in the subgroup

● Information of movement characteristics, the information functioning to indicate movement characteristics of the user, such as stationary user, moving user, fast moving user, medium moving user, low moving user, normadic user. Further, the information may also include information of the user's movement speed. In one embodiment, the movement characteristic information may be a sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "identification information of sub-group", i.e. the movement characteristics of the users in the sub-group

● Information of energy characteristics indicating the way the user supplies energy, e.g. plug-in, battery powered, which information may also be referred to as Power Profile. In one embodiment, the energy characteristic information may be a subgroup identified for the "identification information of subgroup" described above, i.e. the energy characteristics of the users in the subgroup

■ First information related to the paging message, such as a slot to which the paging message is transmitted, a configuration of DRX for paging, and a cycle (cycle) for paging.

The process has the advantages that: the base station may generate configuration information related to the transmission of paging signals and/or paging messages based on assistance information provided by the core network device (e.g., the AMF or MME) and transmit the configuration information to the user. This can help the base station or the distribution unit of the base station to reasonably configure the resources related to the transmission of the paging signal and/or the paging message, and avoid the waste and conflict of the resources; on the other hand, the user can be configured to receive the paging signal and/or the paging message in a suitable resource, thereby avoiding unnecessary energy consumption. In addition, since the core network device generates the auxiliary information, the beneficial effects of the procedure further include: the core network equipment can obtain more information from the user, and is favorable for generating more accurate and comprehensive auxiliary information, so that the paging configuration of the network side to the user can conform to the actual situation of the user to a greater extent.

In the above procedure, the first Configuration message may be an existing message on the NG interface or the S1 interface, for example, an AMF/MME Configuration Update message, or may be a newly defined message. The second CONFIGURATION message may be an F1 SETUP RESPONSE message of the F1 interface, or a GNB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE acknowledgement message, or a GNB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a message of another F1 interface, or a W1SETUP RESPONSE message of the W1 interface, or an NG-ENB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE acknowledgement message, or an NG-ENB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a message of another W1 interface, or a newly defined message. The first user configuration message may be a system message, for example, a system message including SIB1, an RRC message, or a newly defined message.

The second method comprises the following steps: the assistance information required for configuring the transmission of paging signals and/or paging messages is provided by the base station or the central unit of the base station (or the control plane part of the central unit of the base station)

In the method, the flow of signaling interaction comprises the following steps:

step 1b-1: the first node sends a third configuration message to the third node, the third configuration message includes paging configuration assistance information, the role of the third configuration message is to provide the third node with assistance information required for configuring a paging signal and/or sending a paging message, and the paging configuration assistance information included in the third configuration message includes at least one of the following information:

■ Information indicative of the number of subgroups, which information has the effect of informing the third node of the number information of subgroups, which in one embodiment is a paging subgroup, from which the third node may generate configuration information for each paging subgroup. In one embodiment, the number of subgroups is the number of subgroups set by the first node, and further, the number of subgroups may further include identification information of cells for the number of subgroups, where the number of subgroups is the number of subgroups used for paging that supports a grouping method based on user identification; in another embodiment, the number of subgroups is the number of subgroups that the first node sets according to the number of subgroups configured for the cell it controls (e.g., the maximum number of subgroups configured for the cell it controls). After receiving the information, the third node may set the number of subgroups it needs, such as the number of subgroups it uses to support paging by the core network based grouping method (e.g., the number of subgroups it uses for paging by the user identification based grouping method is not less or not greater than the number of subgroups it uses for paging by the core network based grouping method); in one embodiment, the number of sub-groups indicated by the indication information may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of sub-groups supported by all cells in one or more areas; further, the indication information may further include identification information of one or more areas corresponding to the number of subgroups, and the one or more areas may be at least one of the following types: a registration area, a tracking area, a RAN notification area, an area covered by a cell, and a coverage area of a base station; in one embodiment, if the identification information of one or more areas is included, the sub-group number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the sub-group numbers supported by all cells within the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more areas. Specifically, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more registration areas, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by cells in an area indicated by the identification information of the one or more registration areas; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a subgroup number and identification information of one or more tracking areas (tracking areas), the subgroup number may be a minimum (or maximum) value of the subgroup numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more tracking areas (tracking areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a sub-group number and identification information of one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas), the sub-group number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the sub-group numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and identification information of one or more cells, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell indicated by the identification information of the one or more cells; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more base stations, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell of the base station indicated by the identification information of the one or more base stations.

■ Third assistance information, whose role is to help the third node generate configuration information related to the paging signal and/or paging message (e.g. determining the paging sub-group of the user). The auxiliary information may be respectively given for a plurality of groups of users, and for a group of users, the third auxiliary information includes at least one of the following information:

third identification information of subgroups, the information identifying a subgroup, which in an embodiment is a paging subgroup

Third information of paging probability, which serves to indicate probability that the user is paged, may be, in one embodiment, a paging probability for a sub-group identified by the above-described "third identification information of the sub-group", that is, a paging probability of the user in the sub-group

Third information of the user type, for example, reduced capability user (RedCap user), eMBB user, eMTC user, URLLC user, multi-SIM card user, and the like. In one embodiment, the type of the user may be a subgroup identified for the above-mentioned "third identification information of subgroup", i.e. the type of the user in the subgroup

Third information of the moving feature, which functions to indicate moving characteristics of the user, such as a stationary user, a moving user, a fast moving user, a medium moving user, a low moving user, a Nomadic user. Further, the information may also include information of the user's movement speed. In one embodiment, the mobile characteristic information may be a subset identified for the "third identification information of the subset", i.e. the mobile characteristics of the users in the subset

Third information of energy characteristics, which indicates the way the user is supplied with energy, e.g. plug-in, battery powered, which information may also be referred to as Power Profile. In one embodiment, the energy characteristic information may be the energy characteristic of the user in the subgroup identified for the above-mentioned "third identification information of the subgroup", i.e. the subgroup

Indication information of user capability, which functions to indicate a paging method that the user can support (e.g., paging based on a grouping method of a core network, or paging based on a grouping method of a user identity), based on which the third node can be helped to determine whether to transmit the sub-group identification information

Step 1b-2: the third node determines information related to the transmission of the paging signal and/or paging message of the user, e.g. the subgroup to which the paging signal and/or paging message of the user belongs, the paging probability of the user, etc. Further, the third node may generate a paging message for the user according to the information.

If the first node is a centralized unit of the base station, or a control plane part of the centralized unit of the base station, after step 1b-1, the method may further include:

step 1b-1a, the first node sends a fourth configuration message to the second node, the message includes paging configuration auxiliary information, the function of the fourth configuration message is to provide the second node with auxiliary information related to the sending of the paging signal and/or the paging message, the paging configuration auxiliary information included in the message includes at least one of the following information:

■ And indication information of the number of the subgroups, which is used for notifying the second node of the number information of the subgroups, in one embodiment, the subgroups are paging subgroups, and according to the number information, the second node may generate configuration information for each paging subgroup, and further, the indication information may further include identification information of a cell to which the second node is directed. In one embodiment, the number of sub-groups indicated by the indication information may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of sub-groups supported by all cells in one or more areas; further, the indication information may further include identification information of one or more areas corresponding to the number of subgroups, and the one or more areas may be at least one of the following types: a registration area, a tracking area, a RAN notification area (RAN notification area), an area covered by a cell, and a coverage area of a base station; in one embodiment, if the information indicating the number of subgroups includes identification information of one or more areas, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by all cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more areas. Specifically, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more registration areas, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by cells in an area indicated by the identification information of the one or more registration areas; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a subgroup number and identification information of one or more tracking areas (tracking areas), the subgroup number may be a minimum (or maximum) value of the subgroup numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more tracking areas (tracking areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a sub-group number and identification information of one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas), the sub-group number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the sub-group numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and identification information of one or more cells, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell indicated by the identification information of the one or more cells; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and identification information of one or more base stations, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell of the base station indicated by the identification information of the one or more base stations.

■ Fourth assistance information, whose role is to assist the second node in generating configuration information related to the paging signal and/or the paging message. The fourth auxiliary information may be respectively given for a plurality of groups of users, and for a group of users, the fourth auxiliary information at least includes at least one of the following information:

fourth identifying information for subgroups, the information used to identify a subgroup, which in one embodiment is a paging subgroup

Fourth information of paging probability, which serves to indicate probability that the user is paged, may be, in one embodiment, a paging probability for a sub-group identified by the above-described "fourth identification information of the sub-group", that is, a paging probability of the user in the sub-group

Fourth information of user type, e.g., reduced capability user (RedCap user), eMBB user, eMTC user, URLLC user, multi-SIM card user, etc. In one embodiment, the type of the user may be a subgroup identified for the above-mentioned "fourth identification information of subgroup", i.e. the type of the user in the subgroup

Fourth information of the moving feature, which functions to indicate moving characteristics of the user, such as a stationary user, a moving user, a fast moving user, a medium moving user, a low moving user, a Nomadic user. Further, the information may also include information of the user's movement speed. In one embodiment, the movement characteristic information may be a sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "fourth identification information of the sub-group", that is, a movement characteristic of a user in the sub-group

Fourth information of energy characteristics, which indicates the way the user's energy is supplied, e.g. plug-in, battery powered, which information may also be referred to as Power Profile. In one embodiment, the energy characteristic information may be the energy characteristic of the sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "fourth identification information of the sub-group", i.e. the users in the sub-group

The method may further comprise the steps of:

and 1b-3, the first node or the second node sends a second user configuration message to the fourth node. This step may be performed independently of step 1b-1 described above (i.e. need not be performed after step 1 b-1). In one embodiment, if the first node is a base station, this step comprises the first node sending a first user configuration message to the fourth node; in another embodiment, if the first node is a centralized unit of a base station or a control plane part of a centralized unit of a base station, the step is performed after step 1b-1a above and comprises sending, by the second node, a second user configuration message to the fourth node. The second user configuration message includes user configuration information, and is used for configuring the sending of the paging signal and/or the paging information. The user configuration information included in the second user configuration message includes at least one of the following information:

■ Second information about a Paging signal, which is information about the Paging signal, wherein the Paging signal may be WUS (Wake-up Signaling), GWUS (Group Wake-up Signaling), PEI (Paging Early Indication). Further, the paging signals may have one or more paging signals, and when there are multiple paging signals, the multiple paging signals may be divided into different groups, each group of paging signals has a corresponding resource, and for each group of paging signals, the information includes at least one of the following information:

a length of time taken for a paging signal, and the information indicates the length of time taken for the paging signal, for example, maximum WUS/GWUS/PEI duration

Information of the number of paging opportunities (paging occasion) corresponding to the paging signal, which indicates the number of paging opportunities mapped to one paging signal

A number of paging signal groups corresponding to the user group, the information indicating the number of paging signal groups corresponding to a group of users, and a characteristic corresponding to the group of users may be indicated by information included in the "third assistance information" or the "fourth assistance information" described above

● User type information, such as reduced capability users (RedCap users), eMBB users, eMTC users, URLLC users, multi-SIM card users, and the like. In one embodiment, the type of the user may be a subgroup identified for the above-mentioned "identification information of subgroup", i.e. the type of the user in the subgroup

● Information of movement characteristics, which functions to indicate movement characteristics of the user, such as a stationary user, a moving user, a fast moving user, a medium moving user, a low moving user, a Nomadic user. Further, the information may also include information of the user's movement speed. In one embodiment, the movement characteristic information may be a sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "identification information of sub-group", i.e. the movement characteristics of the users in the sub-group

■ And second information related to the paging message, such as a slot to which the paging message is transmitted, a configuration of DRX for paging, and a cycle (cycle) for paging.

The beneficial effects of the process include: the core network device (AMF or MME) may generate configuration information related to the transmission of the paging signal and/or the paging message according to the assistance information provided by the base station, and transmit the paging message to the user. Therefore, the core network equipment can be helped to select proper configuration to trigger the base station to send the paging signal and/or the paging message to the user, so that the energy consumption of the user in the paging process can be reduced; on the other hand, the user can be configured to receive the paging signal and/or the paging message in a suitable resource, thereby avoiding unnecessary energy consumption. In addition, since the auxiliary information is generated by the base station or the centralized unit of the base station (or the control plane part of the centralized unit), the beneficial effects of the flow also include: the base station or the central unit of the base station or the control plane part of the central unit of the base station may generate a suitable division of the user paging group according to the auxiliary information in order to generate a suitable resource for transmitting the paging signal and/or the paging message, thereby being able to avoid waste and collision of resources.

In the above flow, the third Configuration message may be an existing message on the NG interface or the S1 interface, for example, a RAN Configuration Update message, or may be a newly defined message. The fourth CONFIGURATION message may be an F1 SETUP RESPONSE message of the F1 interface, or a GNB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE acknowledgement message, or a GNB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a message of another F1 interface, or a W1SETUP RESPONSE message of the W1 interface, or an NG-ENB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE acknowledgement message, or an NG-ENB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE acknowledgement message, or a message of another W1 interface, or a newly defined message. The second user configuration message may be a system message, such as a system message containing SIB1, an RRC message, or a newly defined message.

The third method comprises the following steps: auxiliary information required for configuring the transmission of paging signals and/or paging messages is provided by a distribution unit of the base station

In the method, the flow of signaling interaction comprises the following steps:

step 1c-1: the second node sends a fifth configuration message to the first node, the fifth configuration message comprises paging configuration auxiliary information, the function of the fifth configuration message is to provide the first node with auxiliary information required for configuring the sending of the paging signal and/or the paging message, and the paging configuration auxiliary information included in the message comprises at least one of the following information:

■ And information indicating the number of subgroups, where the information is used to notify the first node of the number information of the subgroups, and in one embodiment, the subgroups are paging subgroups, and according to the number information, the first node may generate configuration information for each paging subgroup, and further, the information may further include identification information of a cell to which the number of subgroups refers. In one embodiment, the number of subgroups indicated by the indication information may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by all cells in one or more areas; further, the indication information may further include identification information of one or more areas corresponding to the number of subgroups, and the one or more areas may be at least one of the following types: a registration area, a tracking area, a RAN notification area, an area covered by a cell, and a coverage area of a base station; in one embodiment, if the information indicating the number of subgroups includes identification information of one or more areas, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by all cells within the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more areas. Specifically, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more registration areas, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by cells in an area indicated by the identification information of the one or more registration areas; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a subgroup number and identification information of one or more tracking areas (tracking areas), the subgroup number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by cells in an area indicated by the identification information of the one or more tracking areas (tracking areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a sub-group number and identification information of one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas), the sub-group number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the sub-group numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and identification information of one or more cells, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell indicated by the identification information of the one or more cells; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more base stations, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell of the base station indicated by the identification information of the one or more base stations.

■ The fifth auxiliary information is used for helping the first node to generate configuration information (for example, determining a paging subgroup of a user) related to the paging signal and/or the paging message, or helping the first node to provide auxiliary information required for configuring the transmission of the paging signal and/or the paging message to the third node. The fifth auxiliary information may be respectively given for a plurality of groups of users, and for a group of users, the fifth auxiliary information at least includes at least one of the following information:

information identifying a subset of the paging subgroups, the subset being a subset of the paging subgroups in one embodiment

Fifth information of paging probability, which serves to indicate probability that the user is paged, may be, in one embodiment, a paging probability for a sub-group identified by the above-described "fifth identification information of the sub-group", that is, a paging probability of the user in the sub-group

Fifth information of user type, for example, reduced capability user (RedCap user), eMBB user, eMTC user, URLLC user, multi-SIM card user, and the like. In one embodiment, the type of the user may be a subgroup identified for the above-mentioned "fifth identification information of subgroup", i.e. the type of the user in the subgroup

Fifth information of moving features, which functions as movement characteristics indicating users, such as stationary users, moving users, fast moving users, medium moving users, low moving users, nomadic users. Further, the information may also include information on the speed of movement of the user. In one embodiment, the movement characteristic information may be a sub-group identified with respect to the above-mentioned "fifth identification information of the sub-group", that is, a movement characteristic of the user in the sub-group

Fifth information of energy characteristics, which indicates the way the user's energy is supplied, e.g. plug-in, battery powered, which information may also be referred to as Power Profile. In one embodiment, the energy characteristic information may be the energy characteristic of the sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "fifth identification information of the sub-group", i.e. the users in the sub-group

Information indicating user capability indicating a paging method (e.g., paging based on a core network grouping method or paging based on a user identification grouping method) that can be supported by the user, and based on the information, the first or third node may be assisted in determining a configuration of a paging user (e.g., whether to transmit a paging message to the user based on subgroup identification information included in the paging message, and if the user supports paging based on the core network grouping method, a paging signal may be transmitted to the user based on the subgroup identification information, otherwise, it may not be possible, e.g., whether to support paging based on the user identification grouping method, and if so, a subgroup identification may be obtained based on the user identification, and then a paging signal may be transmitted on a resource corresponding to the subgroup identification)

Step 1c-2: the first node sends a sixth configuration message to the third node, the sixth configuration message includes paging configuration auxiliary information, the function of the sixth configuration message is to provide the third node with auxiliary information required for configuring a paging signal and/or sending a paging message, and the paging configuration auxiliary information included in the sixth configuration message includes at least one of the following information:

■ And information indicating the number of subgroups, which is used to inform the third node of the number information of subgroups, which is a paging subgroup in one embodiment, and the third node can generate configuration information for each paging subgroup according to the number information. In one embodiment, the number of subgroups is the number of subgroups set by the second node, and further, may further include identification information of cells for the number of subgroups, where the number of subgroups is the number of subgroups used for paging that supports a grouping method based on a user identification; in another embodiment, the number of subgroups is the number of subgroups that the first node sets according to the number of subgroups configured for the cell it controls (e.g., the maximum number of subgroups configured for the cell it controls). Upon receiving this information, the third node may set its required number of subgroups, such as the number of subgroups used in supporting paging for the core network based grouping method (e.g., the number of subgroups used for paging for the user identification based grouping method is not less than or not greater than the number of subgroups used for paging for the core network based grouping method). In one embodiment, the number of sub-groups indicated by the indication information may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of sub-groups supported by all cells in one or more areas; further, the indication information may further include identification information of one or more areas corresponding to the number of subgroups, and the one or more areas may be at least one of the following types: a registration area, a tracking area, a RAN notification area, an area covered by a cell, and a coverage area of a base station; in one embodiment, if the information indicating the number of subgroups includes identification information of one or more areas, the number of subgroups may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by all cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more areas. Specifically, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more registration areas, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by cells in an area indicated by the identification information of the one or more registration areas; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a subgroup number and identification information of one or more tracking areas (tracking areas), the subgroup number may be a minimum (or maximum) value of the subgroup numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more tracking areas (tracking areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a sub-group number and identification information of one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas), the sub-group number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the sub-group numbers supported by the cells in the area indicated by the identification information of the one or more RAN notification areas (RAN notification areas); in another embodiment, if the indication information includes a subgroup number and identification information of one or more cells, the subgroup number may be a minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell indicated by the identification information of the one or more cells; in another embodiment, if the indication information includes the number of subgroups and the identification information of one or more base stations, the number of subgroups may be the minimum (or maximum) value among the number of subgroups supported by the cell of the base station indicated by the identification information of the one or more base stations.

■ Sixth assistance information, which functions to help the third node generate configuration information related to the paging signal and/or paging message (e.g., determine the paging sub-group of the user). The sixth auxiliary information may be respectively given for a plurality of groups of users, and for a group of users, the sixth auxiliary information at least includes at least one of the following information:

sixth identifying information for subgroups, the information identifying a subgroup, which in one embodiment is a paging subgroup

Sixth information of paging probability, the role of which is to indicate the probability that the user is paged, which in one embodiment may be for the subgroup identified by the above-mentioned "sixth identification information of the subgroup", i.e. the paging probability of the user in the subgroup

Sixth information of user type, for example, reduced capability user (RedCap user), eMBB user, eMTC user, URLLC user, multi-SIM card user, and the like. In one embodiment, the type of the user may be a subgroup identified by the above-mentioned "sixth identification information of subgroup", that is, the type of the user in the subgroup

Sixth information of the movement feature, which functions to indicate movement characteristics of the user, such as a stationary user, a moving user, a fast-moving user, a medium-moving user, a low-moving user, a Nomadic user. Further, the information may also include information on the speed of movement of the user. In one embodiment, the movement characteristic information may be a sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "sixth identification information of the sub-group", that is, the movement characteristic of the user in the sub-group

Sixth information of energy characteristics, which indicates the way the user is supplied with energy, e.g. plug-in, battery powered, which information may also be referred to as Power Profile. In one embodiment, the energy characteristic information may be the energy characteristic of the sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "sixth identification information of the sub-group", i.e. the users in the sub-group

Indication information of user capability, the role of which is to indicate a paging method that can be supported by the user (e.g., paging based on a grouping method of a core network, or paging based on a grouping method of a user identity), based on which the third node can be helped to determine the configuration of the paging user (e.g., whether to send a paging message to the user based on subgroup identification information contained in the paging message, if the user supports paging based on a grouping method of a core network, a paging signal can be sent to the user based on the subgroup identification information, otherwise, it is disabled, e.g., whether to support paging based on a grouping method of a user identity, if supported, a subgroup identity is obtained from the user identity, and then a paging signal is sent on a resource corresponding to the subgroup identity)

Step 1c-3: the third node determines information related to the transmission of the paging signal and/or paging message of the user, e.g. the subgroup to which the paging signal and/or paging message of the user belongs, the paging probability of the user, etc. Further, the third node may generate a paging message for the user according to the information.

In addition, the method may further include:

step 1c-4: the second node sends a third user configuration message to the fourth node, which may be performed independently of the above-mentioned step 1c-1/2/3 (i.e. without having to be performed after step 1 c-1/2/3). The third user configuration message includes user configuration information, which is used to configure the transmission of paging signal and/or paging information. The user configuration information included in the third user configuration message includes at least one of the following information:

■ Third information about a Paging signal, which is information about a Paging signal, wherein the Paging signal may be WUS (Wake-up Signaling), GWUS (Group Wake-up Signaling), PEI (Paging Early Indication). Further, there may be one or more paging signals, when there are multiple paging signals, the multiple paging signals may be divided into different groups, each group of paging signals has corresponding resources, and for each group of paging signals, the information at least includes at least one of the following information:

frequency position of paging signal, the information indicating frequency position at which the paging signal is transmitted

a length of time taken for a paging signal, the information indicating the length of time taken for the paging signal, such as maximum WUS/GWUS/PEI duration

A number of paging signal groups corresponding to the user group, the information indicating the number of paging signal groups corresponding to a group of users, and a characteristic corresponding to the group of users may be indicated by information included in the above-mentioned "fifth assistance information" or "sixth assistance information

identification information of the subgroup, which is used to identify a subgroup, which in one embodiment is a paging subgroup

Information of paging probability, the role of which is to indicate the probability that a user is paged, which in one embodiment may be for the subgroup identified by the "identification information of subgroup" above, i.e. the paging probability of the user in the subgroup

Subscriber type information, e.g., reduced capability subscribers (reduce capability subscribers), eMBB subscribers, eMTC subscribers, URLLC subscribers, multi-SIM card subscribers, etc. In one embodiment, the type of the user may be a subgroup identified for the "identifying information of subgroup" described above, i.e., the type of the user in the subgroup

● Information of movement characteristics, the information functioning to indicate movement characteristics of the user, such as stationary user, moving user, fast moving user, medium moving user, low moving user, normadic user. Further, the information may also include information on the speed of movement of the user. In one embodiment, the movement characteristic information may be a sub-group identified for the above-mentioned "identification information of sub-group", i.e. the movement characteristics of the users in the sub-group

■ And third information related to the paging message, such as a slot to which the paging message is transmitted, a DRX configuration of the paging, a cycle (cycle) of the paging, and the like.

The beneficial effects of the process include: the core network equipment (AMF or MME) or the central unit of the base station (or the control plane part of the central unit of the base station) may generate configuration information related to the transmission of the paging signal and/or the paging message according to the assistance information provided by the central unit of the base station (or the control plane part of the central unit) or the distributed unit of the base station, and transmit the paging message to the user. This may help the core network device or the central unit of the base station (or the control plane part of the central unit of the base station) to select a suitable configuration to trigger the base station to send a paging signal and/or a paging message to the user, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the user during the paging process; on the other hand, the distribution unit of the base station can directly configure the user to receive the paging signal and/or the paging message in the appropriate resource without acquiring the auxiliary information from the centralized unit of the base station or the control plane part of the centralized unit, thereby saving the signaling overhead. In addition, since the auxiliary information is generated by the distribution unit of the base station, the beneficial effects of the flow further include: the side information may be generated according to the resource status of the distribution unit, so that the efficiency of resource use can be improved.

In the above flow, the fifth CONFIGURATION message may be an F1 SETUP REQUEST message of the F1 interface, or a GNB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a GNB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE ACKNOWLEDGE message, or a message of another F1 interface, or a W1SETUP REQUEST message of the W1 interface, or an NG-ENB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or an NG-ENB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE ACKNOWLEDGE message, or a message of another W1 interface, or a newly defined message. The sixth Configuration message may be an existing message on the NG interface or the S1 interface, such as a RAN Configuration Update message, or may be a newly defined message. The third user configuration message may be a system message, such as a system message containing SIB1, an RRC message, or a newly defined message.

It should be noted that, although the three methods are described separately, the three methods may be combined with each other. For example, among the above-described auxiliary information required to configure the transmission of paging signals and/or paging messages, some information is provided by method one, some information is provided by method two, and some information is provided by method three. Or, the auxiliary information required for configuring the sending of the paging signal and/or the paging message is provided by the first node, the second node, and the third node respectively, or provided by the first node, the second node, and the third node jointly.

In a second aspect: user paging procedure

When the user is in an idle state or an inactive state, the network side may notify the user of data transmission by sending a paging message. In this process, in order to receive the paging message, the user needs to receive the paging message in the configured time slot, and the user needs to wake up (wake up from the low power consumption stage) before the configured time slot, so as to ensure that the user can ensure synchronization with the network side and can ensure correct reception of the paging message. However, the user does not necessarily receive the paging message for the user in the configured time slot, because the network side configures a plurality of users to receive the paging message in the same time slot. If the user does not receive the paging message for the user in the configured slot, the user may unnecessarily consume energy in the process (e.g., the user wakes up and does not receive the paging message in the configured slot). In order to solve the technical problem, a user can receive other signals before receiving a paging message, the signals can help the user determine whether the paging message sent to the user exists in a configured time slot, if so, the user continues to receive the paging message, and if not, the user can enter a low power consumption stage, and the method can save the energy consumption of the user in an idle state or an inactive state. In this process, the base station or the distribution unit of the base station needs to select a suitable paging signal for the paged user to transmit, so that the paged user can correctly receive the paging signal for helping the user obtain the paging message.

In order to solve the technical problem, the invention provides a configuration process, which is used for configuring the sending of the paging signal and/or the paging message of the paged user, so as to help the user to determine whether the paging message needs to be received in the configured time slot, and further, the user only needs to receive the paging message in the time slot with the paging message, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the user.

The flow involves a first node and a second node. The first node may be, for example, a central unit of a base station or a control plane part of a central unit of a base station, such as a gNB-CU, a gNB-CU-CP, a ng-eNB-CU-CP, and the second node may be, for example, a distributed unit of a base station, such as a gNB-DU, a ng-eNB-DU. The process includes the following steps, as shown in fig. 5:

step 2-1: the first node sends a seventh configuration message (e.g., paging message) to the second node, the seventh configuration message having a role of helping the second node send a Paging signal and/or a Paging message of the user, the seventh configuration message including at least one of the following information:

■ Identification information of paged user

■ Configuration of DRX of paging

■ Priority of paging

■ Seventh assistance information, which is paging transmission assistance information, and functions to assist the second node in transmitting a paging signal (WUS, GWUS, PEI, etc.) and/or a paging message. In an embodiment, after receiving the seventh auxiliary information, optionally, the second node may further determine the paging signal and/or the configuration of the paging message (e.g., the resource location for sending the paging signal, the sequence for sending the paging signal, the period for sending the paging signal, the number of times for sending the paging signal, the resource location for sending the paging message, etc.) according to the configuration information (e.g., the related configuration information in the first/second/third user configuration messages obtained according to the procedure described in fig. 4, that is, the configuration flow of the paging signal/paging message in the above first aspect). In one embodiment, the seventh assistance information may be included in a paging message sent by the first node to the second node, and the second node may determine the sending of the paging signal upon receiving the paging message including the seventh assistance information. The seventh auxiliary information includes at least one of the following information:

seventh identification information of subgroups, such as subgroup ID, packing subgroup ID. The information is used to indicate the subgroup corresponding to the paging signal and/or paging message (or the subgroup corresponding to the paged user) that the second node needs to send.

First paging assistance information, such as WUS/GWUS/PEI assistant information, from which the second node may determine paging subgroups of paged users or help the second node determine subgroups of paging signals (e.g., WUS group, WUS subgroup, PEI subgroup). After receiving the first paging assistance information, the second node may send a paging signal and/or a paging message of the user. The first paging assistance information may include at least one of:

● First user capability information indicating the methods of paging packets supported by the user, possible methods being one or more of the above-mentioned "paging based on a packet method of a core network" and the above-mentioned "paging based on a packet method of a user identity". From this information, the second node may determine whether to determine the transmission of paging signals and/or paging messages based on the sub-groups assigned by the core network or to determine the transmission of paging signals and/or paging messages based on the sub-groups determined by the user identity.

● Information of paging probability, which is used to indicate paging probability of paged user

● Subscriber type information, the information being used to indicate the type of subscriber being paged, e.g. reduced capability subscriber, eMBB subscriber, eMTC subscriber, URLLC subscriber, multi-SIM card subscriber, etc

● Information of the movement characteristics, the information serving to indicate the movement characteristics of the paged user, such as a stationary user, a moving user, a fast moving user, a medium moving user, a low moving user, a Nomadic user. Further, the information may also include information on the speed of movement of the user

● Information of energy characteristics indicating the way in which the paged user is supplied with energy, e.g. plug-in, battery-powered, etc., which information may also be referred to as Power Profile

Information about cells, the role of which is to indicate the cell in which the paging signal and/or the paging message of the user is transmitted, i.e. the paging signal and/or the paging message of the user is transmitted only in the cell indicated by the information about cells. The cell-related information may include information of one or more cells, and for one cell, the cell-related information includes at least one of the following information:

● Identification information of a cell

● And second paging assistance information, such as WUS/GWUS/PEI association information, according to which the second node may determine the transmitted paging signal and/or paging message. After receiving the second paging assistance information, the second node may send a paging signal and/or a paging message of the user. In one embodiment, the second paging assistance information may be used in combination with the "cell identification information", that is, for a cell, if the "cell-related information" includes the "cell identification information" and the "second paging assistance information", the second node only needs to transmit a paging signal and/or a paging message in the cell. The second paging assistance information may include at least one of:

identification information of subgroup, which indicates subgroup corresponding to paging signal and/or paging message (or subgroup corresponding to paged user)

Information of paging probability, which is used to indicate paging probability of paged user

Subscriber type information, the information being used to indicate the type of subscriber being paged, e.g. reduced capability subscriber, eMBB subscriber, eMTC subscriber, URLLC subscriber, multi-SIM card subscriber, etc

Information of moving characteristics, which is used to indicate moving characteristics of the paged user, such as a stationary user, a moving user, a fast moving user, a medium moving user, a low moving user, a Nomadic user, and the like. Further, the information may also include information on the speed of movement of the user

Information of energy characteristics indicating the way in which the paged user is supplied with energy, e.g. plug-in, battery-powered, etc., which information may also be referred to as Power Profile

● Indication information of a recently visited cell (most recently visited cell), which is used to indicate that the cell indicated by the "cell identification information" is a cell recently visited by the user (or referred to as a last serving cell, for example, a cell used before the user enters an Idle or Inactive state, i.e., a last used cell), and in one embodiment, the indication information may be explicit indication information; in another embodiment, the indication information may be implicit indication information, for example, when a plurality of cells are included in the above "information about cells", the cell ranked first or last or other specific location is the cell that the user has visited recently; in another embodiment, for example, when a plurality of cells are included in the "information related to cells", if the "second paging assistance information" is also included for one of the cells, the cell needs to transmit a paging signal and/or a paging message according to the "second paging assistance information"

● Identification information of a recently visited cell, which is used to indicate a cell that a user has recently visited. In the presence of the information, the second node will only transmit paging signals and/or paging messages in the cell indicated by the identification information

Step 2-2: and the second node sends a paging signal and/or a paging message to the fourth node according to the received information.

Step 2-3: optionally, the second node sends a seventh configuration response message to the first node, the message is used for confirming the seventh configuration message sent in step 2-1, this step may be executed after step 2-1, and further, the first configuration confirmation message may also include a configuration for sending a paging signal and/or a paging message.

The beneficial effects of the process include: the second node may determine, according to the seventh configuration message, to send the configuration of the paging signal and/or the paging information, and send the paging signal and/or the paging message to the user, and then the user may determine, according to the received paging signal, whether to receive the paging message, which helps the user to reduce energy consumption.

The seventh configuration message may be a PAGING message of the F1 interface, or a message of another F1 interface, or a PAGING message of the W1 interface, or a message of another W1 interface, or a newly defined message.

In some embodiments, the first and second aspects may be combined with each other, for example, by the steps in the first aspect, the configuration related to the paging signal and/or the paging message is completed; when the network is to page a certain user, the second aspect completes the transmission of the paging signal and/or paging message for the certain user. Of course, the present disclosure is also not limited thereto, but the first and second aspects may also be performed independently.

In a third aspect: user access flow

When the base station is composed of a concentration unit (or a control plane part of the concentration unit and a user plane part of the concentration unit) and a distribution unit, the user first accesses the distribution unit and then is informed by the distribution unit to the concentration unit (or the control plane part of the concentration unit). After the central unit (or the control plane part of the central unit) of the base station knows the user access, some user configurations (for example, the PDCP layer configuration) are generated, and whether the user access is allowed or not is also determined (for example, whether the user access is allowed or not is determined according to the resource condition). This procedure has the technical problem that the concentrator unit of the base station (or the control plane part of the concentrator unit) cannot know the type of the user, and thus cannot generate a configuration suitable for the user or decide the access of the user according to the user type. Furthermore, 3GPP Rel-17 introduces a low-Capability UE (red cap UE: reduced Capability UE), which has lower Capability than the general UE, such as limited storage space, limited battery energy, etc., so that when the base station communicates with the UE, it needs to generate a suitable configuration according to the Capability of the UE or decide whether to allow the UE to access. However, in the prior art, the central unit of the base station cannot know the type of the user equipment during the user access process, so that the base station may generate an improper configuration or generate an improper access policy (for example, the improper user equipment is allowed to access a cell). To solve the technical problem, the present invention provides a procedure for accessing a cell by a user, which involves a first node (e.g., a centralized unit of a base station, or a control plane part of a centralized unit of a base station), a second node (e.g., a distributed unit of a base station), and a fourth node (e.g., a user equipment). The process includes the following steps, as shown in fig. 6:

step 3-1: the fourth node sends an access signal to the second node, where the access signal may be Message 1 (for example, preamble) in a random access procedure, may also be Message 3 in the random access procedure, and may also be another type of signal.

Step 3-2: the second node determines the type of the user equipment according to the signal received in step 3-1, and sends an eighth configuration message to the first node, where the message includes at least one of the following information:

■ Indication information of a user equipment type, the information indicating a type of a user equipment accessing the second node, the indication information may indicate the type as one of the following types:

reduced Capability user equipments, such as Reduced Capability UE/device

Reduced Capability user equipment for a single antenna (or single receive antenna, or single transmit antenna), such as a 1x Reduced Capability UE/device

Reduced Capability user equipments such as 2x Reduced Capability UE/device for dual antennas (or dual receive antennas or dual transmit antennas)

■ Identity information of user equipment, e.g. C-RNTI

■ Identification information of a cell to which user equipment is accessed

■ Configuration information of the user equipment generated by the second node, e.g. CellGroupConfig

Step 3-3: the first node sends an eighth configuration response message to the second node, wherein the eighth configuration response message is used for sending configuration information of the user equipment to the second node, and the eighth configuration response message at least comprises one of the following information:

■ A container containing a fourth ue configuration message, wherein if the first node decides not to allow the ue access, the configuration message contained in the container is a Reject message (e.g. RRC Reject message), and if the first node decides to allow the ue access, the first node learns the type of the accessed ue through step 3-2, and the configuration message contained in the container (e.g. RRCSetup message) contains configuration information matching the type of the ue (e.g. PDCP Sequence Number length is set to 12 bits)

■ Bearer type, e.g. SRB ID, for sending user equipment configuration messages

Step 3-4: the second node sends the fourth user equipment configuration message received in step 3-3 to a fourth node (e.g., user equipment).

The process has the beneficial effects that: the first node may learn the type of the ue during the ue accessing procedure, so as to determine a configuration (e.g., a configuration of a PDCP layer of the SRB1 used for sending the RRC message) matching the type of the ue, or determine whether to allow the ue to access according to a resource condition. Therefore, the user equipment can be ensured to carry out data transmission under the configuration matched with the type of the user equipment, the access of the network to the user equipment can be ensured to be determined as fast as possible, and unnecessary resource waste is reduced.

In the above flow, the eighth configuration message in step 3-2 may be an initiate UL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER message of the F1/W1 interface, or may be another message; the eighth configuration response message in step 3-3 may be DL RRC MESSAGE TRANSFER message of the F1/W1 interface, or may be another message.

In the fourth aspect: configuration flow for user access

3GPP Rel-17 introduced a low-Capability user equipment (RedCap UE: reduced Capability UE). Such user equipment is not able to access all cells. The base station may determine the cell to which the red map UE is allowed to access, and in one embodiment, the base station may determine based on its resource status, in another embodiment, the base station may determine based on its own capabilities, and in another embodiment, the base station may determine based on capabilities of other entities (e.g., AMFs, neighbor base stations, etc.) to which the base station is connected. After determining the cell allowing the RedCap UE to access, the base station informs the information to the user equipment, so that the user equipment decides whether to access the cell. When the base station is composed of a centralized unit (or a control plane part of the centralized unit and a user plane part of the centralized unit) and a distribution unit, information of cell access (such as whether the cell allows user access) is sent to the user equipment by the distribution unit (such as broadcast to the user equipment through SIB 1), and therefore, the information of cell access can be OAM configured to the distribution unit of the base station. However, in an actual system, the capability of cell access may also change with the access of the user equipment, and the change cannot be completed through the configuration of OAM. The invention aims to solve the technical problem of how to control the types of the user equipment which are allowed to be accessed by a cell when the access capability of the cell changes. In order to solve the technical problem, the invention provides the following process. The process involves a first node, a second node and a fourth node, as shown in fig. 7:

step 4-1: the first node sends a ninth configuration message to the second node, the message is used for configuring the access information of the cell, and the message comprises at least one of the following information:

■ Identification information of a cell

■ Identification information of cell supported PLMN

■ User equipment type information allowing access to a cell, such as a user with a single antenna (or single receive antenna, or single transmit antenna), a user equipment with dual antennas (or dual receive antennas, or dual transmit antennas), a user equipment with Reduced Capability (Reduced Capability) with a single antenna (or single receive antenna, or single transmit antenna), a user equipment with Reduced Capability with dual antennas (or dual receive antennas, or dual transmit antennas), etc

■ User equipment type information not allowed to access the cell, such as user equipment with single antenna (or single receiving antenna or single transmitting antenna), user equipment with dual antenna (or dual receiving antenna or dual transmitting antenna), user equipment with Reduced Capability (Reduced Capability) of single antenna (or single receiving antenna or single transmitting antenna), user equipment with Reduced Capability of dual antenna (or dual receiving antenna or dual transmitting antenna), etc

■ Information indicating cell access, which indicates the types of user equipments which are or are not allowed to access the cell, such as user equipments with single antenna (or single receiving antenna or single transmitting antenna), user equipments with dual antenna (or dual receiving antenna or dual transmitting antenna), user equipments with Reduced Capability (RedCap: reduced Capability) with single antenna (or single receiving antenna or single transmitting antenna), user equipments with Reduced Capability with dual antenna (or dual receiving antenna or dual transmitting antenna), etc. In one example, the information may be named as reccap Barred, and may include indication information of 1x reccap Barred and/or indication information of 2x reccap Barred, where the "indication information of 1x reccap Barred" may indicate whether or not the user equipment of single antenna (or single receiving antenna, or single transmitting antenna) or the user equipment of Reduced Capability of single antenna (or single receiving antenna, or single transmitting antenna) is allowed to access (e.g., access is allowed, access is not allowed, or "1" indicates access is allowed, "0" indicates access is not allowed), and the "indication information of 2x reccap Barred" may indicate whether or not the user equipment of dual antenna (or dual receiving antenna, or dual transmitting antenna) or the user equipment of Reduced Capability of dual antenna (or dual receiving antenna, or dual transmitting antenna) is allowed (e.g., access is allowed, access is not allowed)

■ Information indicating whether a single antenna user equipment or a reduced capability single antenna user equipment is allowed access (e.g., allowed access, disallowed access), which in one example may be named 1x Red Cap Barred

■ Information indicating whether dual-antenna user equipment or dual-antenna reduced capability user equipment is allowed access (e.g., allowed access, disallowed access), which in one example may be named 2x Red Cap Barred

Step 4-2: the second node sends a fifth user equipment configuration message to the fourth node, the message including configuration information related to cell access, the message being sent according to the information received in step 4-1. After receiving the configuration message, the user equipment may determine whether to access the cell.

Step 4-3: optionally, the second node sends an eighth configuration response message to the first node, the message serving to acknowledge the information received in step 4-1, which may occur after step 4-1.

The beneficial effects of the above-mentioned process include: the concentrator of the base station or a control plane part of the concentrator of the base station may determine the access capability of the cell, and thus determine whether the UE (e.g., a recmap UE) is allowed to access the cell, thereby avoiding the UE accessing a cell that cannot accommodate the UE.

In the above flow, the ninth CONFIGURATION message may be an F1 SETUP RESPONSE message of the F1 interface, or a GNB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE acknowledgement message, or a GNB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a message of another F1 interface, or a W1SETUP RESPONSE message of the W1 interface, or an NG-ENB-DU CONFIGURATION UPDATE acknowledgement message, or an NG-ENB-CU CONFIGURATION UPDATE message, or a newly defined message.

In a fifth aspect: paging of user equipment via relay terminal

In this aspect, the user equipment communicates with the network through one relay terminal. In order to allow the paging message sent by the network to be sent to the user equipment, the relay terminal may receive the paging message belonging to the user equipment and forward the paging message to the user equipment. In the prior art, one user does not receive a paging message for another user, which results in that a user who is not in the cell coverage area cannot receive the paging message for the user, thereby causing interruption of data transmission. With the introduction of the relay terminal, the user equipment can obtain the paging message through the relay terminal, thereby further enlarging the coverage area of the cell and improving the possibility of accessing the user to the network. In order to support paging of a user equipment through a relay terminal, the prior art has the following technical problems:

■ Unnecessary paging message transmission: in the prior art, in order to avoid excessive transmission of paging messages,

for paging initiated by a core network, a base station provides some recommended cells for core network equipment, so that a paging message can be sent only in the cells; for paging initiated by the base station, the base station may also select some cells for paging. However, when a user accesses the network through the relay terminal, the paging message of the user may be transmitted only to the network to which the relay terminal accesses. However, the prior art cannot know the network where the relay terminal connected to the user equipment is located

■ Energy consumption of the relay terminal: in order for the relay terminal to help the ue receive the paging message, the relay terminal needs to monitor the paging message of the ue, which brings extra energy consumption to the relay terminal. The prior art cannot further reduce the energy consumption of the relay terminal.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention also provides a mechanism. The related nodes include the first node to the sixth node.

The first mechanism is as follows: paging recommendation mechanism

When the base station wants to release the ue (when the ue enters idle or inactive state), it provides some auxiliary information to the core network device, which can help to select the cell to send the paging message. Specifically, the mechanism comprises the following steps:

step 5-1-1: the sixth node sends a first release message to the third node, the message having the effect of informing that the fourth node is released. In one embodiment, the message is sent by the third node after requesting the sixth node to release the fourth node. An example of this message is the UE CONTEXT RELEASE COMPLETE message defined in TS38.413, but also messages of other NG interfaces. The message includes eighth assistance information, which includes at least one or more of the following information:

■ First identification information of the fourth node, the identification information being identification information of the fourth node on an interface between the third node and the sixth node

■ And associating the identification information of the node, where the identification information indicates a relay terminal (e.g., a fifth node) to which the fourth node is connected, where the identification information may be 5G-S-TMSI (5G-S-temporal Mobile Subscriber Identity), IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity), identification information of the node on an interface, C-RNTI, or other identification information.

■ The first recommendation information includes identification information of one or more recommended associated nodes (e.g., an associated node recommended by a sixth node), where the recommended associated node is a relay terminal to which the fourth node may be connected, and the identification information may be 5G-S-TMSI (5G-S-temporal Mobile Subscriber Identity), IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity), identification information of the node on an interface, C-RNTI, or other identification information.

After receiving the message, the third node may determine to which base station the paging message should be sent (e.g., to the base station to which the relay terminal indicated by the information is connected) according to the "identification information of the associated node" and/or the "first recommendation information". Thus, when core network-initiated paging needs to be performed on the fourth node, the third node may also send a paging message of the fourth node to other base stations (e.g., the base station to which the relay terminal is connected, as indicated by the "identification information of the associated node", and/or the base station associated with the relay terminal, as indicated by the "first recommendation information"). The third node may perform the following steps:

step 5-1-2: the third node sends a third paging message to the first node, the message including at least one of the following information:

■ Second identification information of the fourth node, e.g. 5G-S-TMSI, I-RNTI (inactive-radio network temporary identifier)

■ The first recommendation information includes identification information of one or more recommended associated nodes, where the recommended associated nodes are relay terminals to which the fourth node may be connected, and the identification information may be 5G-S-TMSI (5G-S-temporal Mobile Subscriber Identity), IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity), identification information of the node on an interface, C-RNTI, or other identification information.

After receiving the message, the first node may determine whether the indicated relay terminal is in its coverage area according to the "identification information of the associated node" and/or the "first recommendation information", and if so, may send a paging message of a fourth node to the relay terminal (e.g., sending through an RRC message of the relay terminal, or sending through a paging message of the fourth node).

When base station initiated paging is required for the fourth node, the following steps may be performed:

step 5-1-2a: the sixth node sends a fourth paging message to the first node, the message having the function of informing the first node to send a paging message to the fourth node. The message includes at least one of the following information:

Further, the following steps may be performed:

step 5-1-3: the first node sends a paging message of the fourth node to the fifth node. The message may be sent by an RRC message of the fifth node and then forwarded by the fifth node to the fourth node.

Through the mechanism, the first node or the third node can know the relay terminal connected with the user terminal or the relay terminals possibly connected with the user terminal, so that the paging message of the user terminal is sent to the relay terminals, and unnecessary sending of the paging message is reduced.

And a second mechanism: user location reporting mechanism

The mechanism is used for informing other base stations of the relay terminal connected with the user equipment, and then the other base stations only need to send paging messages to the base stations connected with the relay terminal. The mechanism comprises the following steps:

step 5-2-1: the first node sends a first report message to the sixth node, the message is used for informing a fifth node connected with the fourth node, and the message at least comprises one of the following information:

After receiving the message, the sixth node can know the connection between the fourth node and the terminal connected to the first node, so that when the sixth node sends the paging message of the fourth node, the sixth node can only send the paging message to the first node, and thus, the cell sent by the paging message can be saved.

Further, in order to obtain the second identification information of the fourth node, the method may further include the following steps:

step 5-2-2: the fifth node sends a second report message to the first node, the message having the function of providing the first node with information of a fourth node connected to the fifth node, the message may contain at least one of the following information:

■ The "second identification information of the fourth node" mentioned above, for example, 5G-S-TMSI, I-RNTI (inactive-radio network temporary identifier)

■ Identification information of the paging subgroup, which indicates indication information of a method of determining the paging subgroup by the paging subgroup ■ to which the fourth node belongs, and the indication method may be one of the following methods: 1) Determining a configuration to receive a paging message (e.g., resources to receive the aforementioned early paging indicator) based on the configured paging subgroup identification, 2) determining a configuration to receive a paging message (e.g., resources to receive the aforementioned early paging indicator) based on the identification information of the fourth node

■ The indication information of the paging method supported by the user may be one of the following methods: 1) Determining a configuration for receiving a paging message (e.g., a resource for receiving the aforementioned advanced paging indication) based on the configured paging subgroup identification, 2) determining a configuration for receiving a paging message (e.g., a resource for receiving the aforementioned advanced paging indication) based on the identification information of the fourth node

Further, in order to provide the information related to the fourth node to the fifth node, the following steps may be further included before step 5-2-2:

step 5-2-3: the fourth node sends a third report message to the fifth node, the message being operative to provide the fifth node with information related to paging of the fourth node, the message including at least one of:

■ The above-mentioned "second identification information of the fourth node", for example, 5G-S-TMSI, I-RNTI (inactive-radio network temporary identifier)

■ Identification information of paging subgroup indicating paging subgroup to which fourth node belongs

■ Determining indication information of a method of paging a sub-group, which may be one of the following methods: 1) Determining a configuration to receive a paging message (e.g., resources to receive the aforementioned early paging indicator) based on the configured paging subgroup identification, 2) determining a configuration to receive a paging message (e.g., resources to receive the aforementioned early paging indicator) based on the identification information of the fourth node

■ Indication information of paging methods supported by a user, where the indication method may be one of the following methods: 1) Determining a configuration to receive a paging message (e.g., resources to receive the aforementioned early paging indicator) based on the configured paging subgroup identification, 2) determining a configuration to receive a paging message (e.g., resources to receive the aforementioned early paging indicator) based on the identification information of the fourth node

The effect of receiving the message is that, on the one hand, the fifth node may generate the information in step 5-2-2, and on the other hand, the fifth node may determine, according to the received information, the configuration for receiving the paging message of the fourth node, such as determining the resource for receiving the early paging indication.

Through the mechanism, the sixth node can acquire the relay terminal connected with the user terminal, so that the paging message of the user terminal is sent to the base station connected with the relay terminal, unnecessary sending of the paging message is reduced, and meanwhile, the relay terminal can receive the paging message of the user terminal according to the configuration of the paging message of the user (such as receiving the resource indicated by the advanced paging).

Fig. 8 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an example configuration of hardware components of a communication 800, which may be configured to implement any one or more of the methods according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. Thus, it should be understood that the communication device 800 may be, for example, the first node, the second node, the third node, the fourth node/user equipment, or a portion thereof, as described in this disclosure.

As shown in fig. 8, the communication device 800 includes a transceiving unit 801, a processor 802, and a memory 803.

The transceiving unit 801 is configured to receive and/or transmit signals.

The processor 802 is operatively connected to the transceiving unit 801 and the memory 803. The processor 802 may be implemented as one or more processors for performing operations in accordance with any one or more of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 803 is configured to store computer programs and data. The memory 803 may include non-transitory memory for storing operations and/or code instructions that may be executed by the processor 802. The memory 803 may include processor-readable non-transitory programs and/or instructions which, when executed, cause the processor 802 to perform the steps of any one or more of the methods according to the various embodiments of the present disclosure. The memory 803 may also include a random access memory or buffer(s) to store intermediate processing data from the various functions performed by the processor 802.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the description of the methods of the present disclosure is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure.

In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the implementations of the methods and apparatus of the present disclosure are shown and described. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment of the method and apparatus, numerous implementation-specific decisions may be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with application, system, network, and business-related constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one developer to another.

The modules, processing operations, and/or data structures described in accordance with the present disclosure may be implemented using various types of operating systems, computing platforms, network devices, computer programs, and/or general purpose machines. Further, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that less general purpose devices, such as hardwired devices, field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), or the like, may also be used. Where a method comprising a series of operations and sub-operations is implemented by a processor, computer, or machine, and those operations and sub-operations may be stored as a series of non-transitory code instructions readable by the processor, computer, or machine, they may be stored on a tangible and/or non-transitory medium.

The modules of the methods and apparatus described herein may comprise software, firmware, hardware or any combination(s) of software, firmware or hardware suitable for the purposes described herein.

In the methods described herein, various operations and sub-operations may be performed in various orders, and some of the operations and sub-operations may be optional.

While the foregoing disclosure of the present application has been made by way of non-limiting illustrative embodiments, these embodiments can be modified at will within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and nature of the disclosure.

Claims

1. A method relating to paging, comprising:

acquiring paging configuration auxiliary information;

transmitting a message including information related to a paging signal based on the paging configuration assistance information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the paging configuration assistance information comprises information indicative of a number of subgroups and/or at least one of the following for each of one or more groups of users:

identification information of the subgroup;

user paging probability related information;

user type related information;

information related to the movement characteristics of the user;

energy characteristic related information of the user; and

an indication of the user's capabilities.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information indicative of the number of subgroups further comprises identification information of a cell or region for which the number of subgroups is intended, the region comprising one of: registration area, tracking area, RAN notification area, area covered by cell, and coverage area of base station, and

wherein the acquiring the paging configuration assistance information comprises:

receiving, by the second node from the first node via a paging configuration message, paging configuration assistance information at the first node; or

Receiving, by the second node from the first node via a paging configuration message, paging configuration assistance information sent by the third node to the first node; or

The second node obtains paging configuration assistance information at the second node itself.

4. A method relating to paging, comprising:

receiving, by a second node, a first paging message including paging transmission assistance information from a first node; and

transmitting, by the second node, a paging signal and/or a second paging message to the fourth node based on the first paging message.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein,

the paging transmission assistance information comprises at least one of: identification information of the subgroup, first paging assistance information, and information related to the cell.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first and second light sources are selected from the group consisting of,

wherein the first paging assistance information comprises at least one of: first user capability information, paging probability related information of the user, user type related information, movement characteristic related information of the user, indication information of the user capability, and energy characteristic related information of the user,

wherein the cell-related information comprises information of one or more cells, and for each of the one or more cells, the cell-related information comprises at least one of: identification information of the cell, second paging assistance information, indication information of a most recently visited cell, and identification information of the most recently visited cell,

wherein the first user capability information indicates a method of paging packets supported by the user, including one or more of paging based on a packet method of a core network and paging based on a packet method of a user identification,

wherein the second paging assistance information comprises at least one of: identification information of subgroups, information related to paging probability, information related to user type, information related to movement characteristics of users, information related to energy characteristics of users, and information indicative of user capability.

7. A method relating to user access, comprising:

receiving, by the second node, access configuration information related to the user type from the first node; and

sending, by the second node, the access configuration information to a fourth node.

8. A method relating to user access, comprising:

determining, by the second node, a user type based on an access signal received from the fourth node;

sending, by the second node, the indication of the user type to the first node; and

receiving, by the second node from the first node, access configuration information based on the indication information of the user type.

9. A method relating to paging, comprising:

acquiring paging configuration auxiliary information by a first node; and

transmitting, by the first node, the paging configuration assistance information to the second node or the third node, or

Transmitting, by the second node, a message including information related to a paging signal to the fourth node based on the paging configuration assistance information.

10. A method relating to paging, comprising:

transmitting, by a first node, a first paging message including paging transmission assistance information to a second node,

wherein the paging transmission assistance information comprises at least one of: identification information of the subgroup, first paging assistance information, and information related to the cell.

11. A method relating to user access, comprising:

receiving, by the first node, information indicative of the user type from the second node; and

and sending the access configuration information based on the indication information of the user type to the second node by the first node.

12. A method relating to paging, comprising:

sending paging configuration assistance information to the first node by the third node, or

Receiving paging configuration assistance information from the first node by the third node,

the method further comprises the following steps:

determining, by the third node, information related to transmission of a paging signal and/or a paging message of the user based on the paging configuration assistance information.

13. A method performed by a sixth node in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:

transmitting, by the sixth node to the third node, eighth assistance information related to paging of the fourth node,

wherein the eighth auxiliary information includes at least one of:

first identification information of the fourth node for indicating identification information of the fourth node on an interface between the third node and the sixth node,

identification information of the associated node for indicating a relay terminal to which the fourth node is connected,

and the first recommendation information comprises identification information of one or more recommended associated nodes.

14. A method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, wherein the first node communicates with a fourth node via an associated node, the method comprising:

receiving, by the first node, first reporting information relating to the fourth node from the associated node; and

transmitting, by the first node, the ninth assistance information to the sixth node based on the first reporting information.

15. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver configured to transmit and/or receive a signal;

a memory configured to store data; and

a processor configured to perform control to perform the method of any of the preceding claims.